OC3D Preview - ATI Release X1950 Pro

Benchmarks and conclusion

Please bear in mind that these benchmarks are performed by ATI and as much as we like to think they are 100% accurate, I would like you to reserve judgement until I have numbers from the lab.

Firstly ATI's bench rig:

Note that ATI state that the X1950 Pro is HDCP compliant. Whether ATI's AIB's will include this is on their boards is another thing altogether, though is about time that they did.

HDR and AA Tests

Let's first see ATI's current speciality - HDR and AA. Note that the 7900GS can also do HDR and AA in HL2, due to an adapted Source engine that allows this on nVidia cards.

Some decent results there for a card that is on the budget side of high-end. HDR and AA is pretty testing even for today's GPU's.

Ultra-High Res Results

Here we see that the X1950 Pro beats out the 7900GS is every test, some by some significant margin.

Crossfire has grown in leaps and bounds too and this graph clearly shows ATI's lead game by game.

Would I put these two GPU's together in a head to head? Well I think this is perhaps a little unfair, BUT the X1950Pro is at exactly the same price point currently so ATI can afford to match the two up - coming onto that..

The Price

The pricepoint for this very nice GPU....$199 - the same as nVidia has put the 7900GS, and the same sort of concept - a cut down version of a top-end GPU.

OCUK have already let slip that they're pricing on the Ice Q version of the X1950 Pro @ £165, but I'm expecting the more "normal" X1950 Pro's to come in at around the £140 mark in the UK...not too shabby!

ATI claim that they will be available on launch day...that is yet to be seen.

Conclusion

ATI have hit out at the field that nVidia is generally pretty good at. Taking the upper-mid range straight to nVidia with such a great performing GPU means that they can sit back and watch nVidia squirm...for the time being that is.

Would I advise getting one? Well that's a difficult question at the moment. With next gen parts coming up very soon and DX10 on the way perhaps you should be saving your pennies. However: if you're looking for a "fill-in" card until that then it may be worth a look at the X1950Pro

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